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Garrett Fuller: Putting An MMO Out Of Its Misery
Sabradin
Member Posts: 772
I realized he wouldn't speak of AoC, with its 100k subscribers; but AoC did come to mind especially at the end
"In closing, I often wonder if game developers ask the question in meetings, is this fun? MMOs that die, die for a reason. I truly believe it is because there is a huge lack of fun in the game. Something just did not jive with the players and that was it, game over. Perhaps before investors spend money, marketing plots the hype, and developers start designing endless code for a game, the game makers should ask that simple question: Will this be fun, Or should we put this idea out of its misery from the get go and save people a lot of time and money? Games are recreation for many people, if they are not fun, do not make them. If you make them like a job, people will eventually quit and find a better one. The story of the MMO industry is a good one to study for anyone wanting to develop video games. There are triumphs and losses, while some losses limp on into the next decade, others have been put out of their misery."
I think developers are selfish when they ask the quesiton "what will be the most fun for us making the game as well as for the customers playing the game" rather than just "whats the most fun for the customers". The reason some developers for victim to theoryworld is that it becomes a pleasure to create a world that you believe in.
Focusing on what the customer wants in theory doesn't cut it, either. You have to be good at it.
I think of Warhammer Online as doing this. Focusing on what the customer wants, but just being shitty at it.
So two laws: Focus on the customer, be good at it (simply, refer to law 1).
.. I made a promise not to dine on the corpse of a beaten horse.. instead I focus on what can be done well later on Garrett Fuller: Putting An MMO Out Of Its Misery
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
Comments
Actually to FC and players that bought this game, this is a fun game, according to what is being promise to be inside the game when launch.
Problem is, due to budget or whatever, they decide to release early and hence an un-complete game. Alot of features is not in as per advertise and thus the fun is gone, and follow by the subs.
So FC problem is not that they have no idea of producing a fun game, its just the executions part, same as War, that's with the problem...
RIP Orc Choppa
this is a side note, but when I look at games like Champions Online and check out the info I see a game thats not finished, but has a lot of promise AND (and this is an important connection) is honest about what it has/doesnt have. Because of that fact, I am more willing to pay money in the spirit of "make this game even better" - why would I think that? Because of the word trust. Without it, you got nothin.
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
Mythic is also very honest about their doing. They let us know before hand that 4 of their cities and class wouldnt make it upon release.
And i see a lot of players praise them for their honesty compare to FC during that time...
Vanguard also promise so much more potential...
Look at both of them now.
Honesty and potential just wont cut it anymore. Players pay for complete and fun contents. Without this, no game can make it...
RIP Orc Choppa
I have to agree about honesty being important, but only for a short time. I look at the comparison between WAR and AoC. Funcom not only wasn't upfront, they lied about the state of the game and tried to blame performance issues and client stability on people's machines instead of the code. WAR devs were far more up front about missing features and problems with their game than AoC devs. Ultimately, both games are failures compared to what they could/should have been, so honesty only cuts a shoddy product a little slack. Sure, some people are going to play a game no matter how bad it is, but I hope these two games and some other lower profile recent MMO launch failures sends a message to other companies that the majority of MMO players aren't going to tolerate crap.
That being said, AoC isn't shutting down anytime soon. AO was a big disaster at launch and still survives. AoC may be reduced to a couple F2P/cash shop servers in a year, but it's probably going to keep running as long as Funcom's doors are open.
Funcom have run AO for eight+ years on far, far less than 100k and it is presumably profitable, so why would they not be able to do the same with Conan. If I had invested that much in a project i would for sure keep it running and making money from those playing and paying. Just means in the long term they won't get to do Blizzard style expansions...but look at EQ and EQ2 and even LOTRO those games have done just fine on 100k subs for years.
Remember WOW is the exception that proves the rule, at least in the west, prior to WOW, 100k would be a perfectly respectible number and 100-200k is where ALL the successful western mainstream MMOs sat and they kept running fine.
It's just the monster success of WOW that has warped peoples expectations (and maybe some developers too
). I would imagine they will just adjust their team size to suit the numbers and keep a tidy profit rolling in.
The main change now compared to before is that there are more and more MMOs coming out - Many free to play and alot of those have very strong content compared to the sub based games (and are even able to provide more added content for the item shop money). What was possible 2 years ago is maybe not possible anymore... 100k ppl will not pay sub for AOC in the next year considering the quality of F2P and new P2P games coming out. Hell.. the new expansion for AOC will probably be bought by less than 50k ppl. Even less less than 40k...
Frobner my friend ... you are underestimanting average idiot will to have fun. 200k plus I think will buy expansion... people are not really that hurt (apart from few even bigger idiots) by not being told the truth - it is the capitalistic world. Live with it. That is if word goes around expansion is worth buying off course - most of MMO players (excluding wombies
) have the box anyway.
I thought AoC had less than 100k subs? And you think 200k+ is going to buy expansion? Isn't that a little optimistic?
Hehe another who never reached average in inteligence (maybe in wow he did
)
Well the fact is that there are 1.2m boxes sitting at gamers homes waiting better times. So yeah ... 200k + IF the reviews and whispers are positive.
You are delusional if you think the expansion is going to sell 200k. Personally I think it will sell less than 100k. The expansion doesn't even have new playable characters! It's basically something you might get for free in other MMOs.
Or do you really think the AoC population will double overnight because they introduced new pets?
All these numbers are just guesses. Get your hands on the company's annual report. Have a nice and boring read. ,)
The expansion opens new areas, new races and new leveling experiences as well as new PvP scenarios. It will sell well if word of mouth is positive. Of course, the expansion HAS to be good. If the expansion is a bomb then the game will die. IMO, AoC will live or die by the expansion.